


OPERATION: SCORE DONGHYUCK LEE A PROM DATE!

by signal



Series: OPERATION: SCORE DONGHYUCK LEE A PROM DATE! [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Gratuitous Use of Stage Names, Homecoming, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, M/M, Miscommunication, Piercings, Prom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-26 00:22:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14988722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/signal/pseuds/signal
Summary: Renjun was there next to him, which meant he was hovering by Donghyuck, agreeing readily. “It’s a five step plan, timed perfectly up until D-Day —  the Winter Formal — but it is indeed a plan.”





	OPERATION: SCORE DONGHYUCK LEE A PROM DATE!

**Author's Note:**

> for more detail about this i recommend you check out the series summary! this is my first venture into nct ficdom... >_<
> 
> anyways points to make:  
> • check the extra tags! stuff is only referenced here but just in case ig? i don't know much about ao3 tagging culture  
> • claire's accessories earrings are fucking expensive, hyuck you're a damn fool  
> • also i don't actually know anything about piercings or self piercings... i got mine done at claire's... solidarity.... honestly though i researched but if i missed anything... don't put out a wanted for incorrect writing poster on me

The scene was this:

Chenle’s upper bedroom had been practically renovated by his six friends, beanbags and pillows draped everywhere there was any free space, with the early evening moonlight pouring in. There was the distant, repetitive tune of Mario Kart coming from Chenle’s abandoned Nintendo Switch, and the familiar crackle of a Haribo share packet that Jaemin was monopolizing.

Chenle had decided to invite everyone to a last minute hangout-slash-sleepover session, considering the terrifying fact that school was chasing their heels, with their perfect summer break’s upcoming end. The scariest part of it all was the prospect of Donghyuck and Jaemin having to take Triple Science instead of just Physics like first year.

(How Donghyuck had blagged himself into that class after scraping a C in that class was a mystery to all.)

This offer was an appealing offer made even more attractive as soon as they were made acutely aware his family had left the kitchen stocked up to the brim, snacks abound. They’d eaten graciously well, and headed back upstairs a couple hours later to ease themselves into a food coma. The main issue was, the milkshakes and meals they’d had made them snoozy and lethargic, some enough to leak secrets.

“You have a crush on Jaehyun Jung?!”

Donghyuck’s hand crashed against his mouth as soon as the words had leaked out. “Oh no,” he said, mournfully, “that’s not good.”

“Jaehyun, captain of the basketball team? Mark’s bro—“

“Can we stop speaking his name into existence,” Donghyuck said shortly, face flushed, not really being clear on who’s name they were talking about. His hands had migrated to an uncomfortable position, just sort of draped over his face. “Fuck. I hate this, actually.”

“You’re the one who said it,” Jaemin grinned, hand curled around his jaw and eyes sparkling with amazement. That, or all the possible blackmail opportunities from here on out. “I _love_ this. This is very fun.”

Donghyuck peeked out from behind his fingers unwillingly, to see all eyes on him, and normally the raging Gemini within him would take this by the reins, but all he could muster was a groan. He slumped against the nearest person, Jeno, judging by the solidity, and continued making noises until someone covered his mouth.

“Are you gonna ask him to prom?” Jisung asked, not in the overly nice way your friends would usually ask, but more like the morbidly curious, can’t-wait-to-see-this-car-crash way.

His voice sounded close, so after deeming him the silencing culprit, Donghyuck simply nipped at his fingers to get him off. Jisung yelped as Donghyuck remained dead weight on an unbothered Jeno, craning his neck to level the youngest with an unimpressed look.

“Do you want me dead? Is that what this is to you? Welcome to the gameshow, ‘Donghyuck Lee’s Death Guarantee?’”

“Always,” Jisung bit back with a wide smile.

“Remind me to cut you out of my will. Everything goes to Chenle now.”

“What can you possibly give a boy that has everything?”

Chenle cut in then, rubbing his hands together a little evilly, “I’ll take Donghyuck’s record player, please and thank you.”

“When did this start?” Renjun intervened quietly, rapt with interest over this development.

“I… was heading to the café near yours, actually, Injun, pre-studying Bio with Jeno over the summer... dropped my book as I walked past the courts he and — uh, Johnny were at, coincidentally. And he… Chased me to come give it back?” Donghyuck said through gritted teeth, fully ready to melt into the ground there and then.

“Are you serious?” Jeno said in mild disbelief, as if recounting the honestly very recent day and Donghyuck felt the other’s body rumble with his voice.

“I didn’t say it was serious,” he shrugged lightly, honest. His feelings for Jaehyun, though debilitating and ruining of his entire image, weren’t that deep. “I just think he’s kinda cute.”

“You know what? I think you should ask him to the formal. Last year was underwhelming,” Jaemin said languidly, leering at Donghyuck with purpose.

Donghyuck coloured even more at that, thinking back to the last year’s end of year Prom event. That infamous time of before summer, in which he only asked Koeun to the dance because in a cruel twist of fate, the two people they wanted to go with had decided to go together.

They spent the majority of the night at the table drinking out of Johnny’s smuggled bottle of vodka at a back table, before cutting loose and ignoring the glaring heartbreak.

Regardless, straight antics had prevailed Freshman year and Donghyuck was _not_ happy about being reminded of it.

“Funny,” he sneered back before he could stop himself. “Have you got anyone to go with, then, Nana? Or do you just want to watch me crash and burn?”

Jaemin paused then, looking thoughtful. “That remains to be seen,” Jaemin said after a beat, pursed his lips. “If you’re going for Jaehyun, that _means_ I don’t have you as a back-up. We could’ve been cute together, Lee.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll save you a dance, asshole,” Jaemin’s returning grin made him relax, and gradually they forgot about the whole thing and moved on to better conversation topics, like how Jeno was going to balance his duties of Basketball club member by day and last minute Organic Chemistry midterm reviser by night.

(“I’m gonna change my ways, this year. Mark my words. … Wait, why are you all laughing at me?!”)

It wasn’t until around an hour later, when they were talking to each other a lot more quietly, and Donghyuck had long ignored Jeno’s hurried texting in between conversations, that his suffering bubbled back up like a sodium volcano experiment all over again.

“So. We’ve devised a plan,” Jeno said wryly after a while, hand slamming anti-climactically on the plush carpet floor, a glint in his eye.

Renjun was there next to him, which meant he was hovering by Donghyuck, agreeing readily. “It’s a five step plan, timed perfectly up until D-Day —  the Winter Formal — _but_ it is indeed a plan.”

“We don’t have a chalk board to make this more accurate to the meddling friendship group archetype in every teen rom-com flick in existence, but we _do_ have an A4 sketchpad on hand,” Jeno continued, dislodging Donghyuck in a fluid motion ( _“Hey!”_ ) and moving to pin the information in the middle of Chenle’s bulletin board.

(The only current important memos were currently three Stephen Curry rip-out posters from various teen magazines, with hearts doodled around them.) He stepped back so they could all see, grinning bright.

“OPERATION: SCORE DONGHYUCK LEE A PROM DATE” was there in (honestly) very impressive calligraphy on one of the back pages of Renjun’s art book. There were five steps, as stressed before, but as Donghyuck scanned each one, his horror rose.

“Nope.”

“You need to hear them, like, actually explained, Hyuck,” Renjun said drily, pen spinning in his hand.

“Acknowledgement machine broke, it’s just not happening.”

“I worked hard on this,” Jeno said, a downward tilt to the corners of his lips. Donghyuck scowled, his allegiance to his friend’s emotions reaching further than his self-preservation.

“Okay, dude, whatever. Speak,” Donghyuck said, waving his hand vaguely and actively making at least some part of him willing to embrace this terrible plan.

 

(Update: It was a terrible plan.)

 

 “If we’re gonna do this, we gotta do it right,” Jeno said severely, head ducked and speaking low.

“I mean. We really can’t do this right. We don’t have any alcohol swab things, we don’t have a sterile needle, we don’t even have spare ear—”

“Ten said he could supply earrings, he bought some recently and he can drive over now to drop them off?” Chenle offered with a wave of his phone, interrupting a scrunched up faced Jisung.

“God, you work fast.”

“Has anyone wanted to know my opinion in this?” Donghyuck said, finally speaking up from his centre position in of their little group huddle. “Considering it is. You know. My ear?”

“No,” was the resounding answer from the rest of his friends, eerily in sync.

Step #1 was in agreement, with everyone including Donghyuck, to be fair.

Renjun had asked him if there was anything he wanted to change himself despite his newly lightened hair in the shade of a peachy orange. Anything he desperately wanted to do to mark his entry into second year, and frankly, only one thing could come up.

Piercing his ears.

Jaemin had brandished his own, old ones proudly, and even Jeno had leaned forward to show off his empty cartilage holes. (He admitted a beat later he took off his favourite pair every time he showered and then forgot to put them back in, resulting in him almost never wearing them.) The rest of them looked on, avidly interested, and at least the rational part of Donghyuck settled it. He was doing this thing.

However, despite his agreement to this, they all seemed to be working together to ruin Donghyuck’s life. Jaemin had a hand firmly gripped on Donghyuck’s jaw, tilting and twisting every so gently to inspect one side of his face, and then the other in different lights. Donghyuck complained about eyes boring into his cheek. Jaemin paid him no mind.

Jeno had returned to sit directly behind Donghyuck, post his muttering closely with a sage-like Renjun who had nodded sagely, like a wizened man who had been through a torrid romance every few seconds.

Jisung was on his phone, scrolling through his newly downloaded Pinterest app on the #piercing tab, making both disgruntled and impressed faces at every gross dermal that popped up.  

Chenle wasn’t fantastically bothered about the whole thing frankly, seemingly content with securing the key point of this whole endeavour. He _was,_ however, busying himself by playing with Donghyuck’s fingers on his free hand. Donghyuck’s busy one was anchored a bit above his head (prime selfie angles if you asked him) scrolling down a certain someone’s Twitter feed; every thumb swipe tinged with a sort of lovesick foolishness.

 

 ** @jungjaein Jaehyun Jung ** (Basketball And Hoop ≊ Basketball)(Crown ): i’m excited for the end of the autumn bball season!

 ** @jungjaein Jaehyun Jung ** (Basketball And Hoop ≊ Basketball)(Crown ): things i’m not looking forward to: maths

 

“Ugh. He’s so cute. I hate him.”

Jeno took a break from developing the five-step plan further and peered over his shoulder, grinning once he saw what Donghyuck was whining over. “You are so bare minimum.”

“Acknowledged,” Donghyuck said with a hard done by sigh.

“Oh — hey! Ten says he’ll pierce your ears for you!”

“Um. When?” Donghyuck said, craning his neck to look at Chenle like he’d grown a second head.

“Like. Now? So you can’t back out. His words, not mine.”

“This feels like I’m being backed into a corner here, guys,” he laughed nervously, and he felt someone ruffle the back of his head.

“If you don’t want to we don’t have to,” Jeno said from behind him, voice warm.

“Noooo, I want to, I do,” he said, giving the go ahead to Chenle to text Ten back. He chuckled nervously, carrying on then. “What do I look like, a coward?”

When Ten arrived around half an hour later, piercing kit and various earrings in tow, Donghyuck was a little more than overwhelmed. He was sitting on the bed now, fiddling on his phone case and trying to not think about the huge fucking needles ready to stab him at a moment’s notice.

“Hey nerds, and my son,” Ten announced, following Chenle into his room with a cocky grin. The clear package of piercing needles he had in his arm made Donghyuck shudder, forgetting to laugh with the rest of them when Jisung complained about favouritism.

“Who do you think is my _son,_ genius?” Ten said, reaching over to affectionately pet the top of his head, before flicking him in the forehead. When the older boy leant past Donghyuck, he noticed the line of silver adorning the outer line to his ear, and he gulped comically.

Ten’s eyes drew to a nervous Donghyuck, and his grin widened, pleasantly this time, “Your hair! You look so good!”

“You think?” Donghyuck said, uncharacteristically bashfully. He forgot this was probably a new thing to the people he didn’t get to see much, if at all, over summer. Regardless, his reaction seemed to be his default status around pretty boys. If anyone laughed around him at this (and they did) he refused to acknowledge them.

“Yes, _so_ nice,” Ten said, perching next to Donghyuck on the bed and pawing through his shopping bag of piercing instruments. Ten was a nice guy, in the year above like Jaehyun was. He’d introduced Donghyuck to the blessing that was eyeliner, for God’s sake, and for that he would forever be in atonement to the older boy. He continued, honesty bleeding through his tone, “I kinda want to bleach mine but I’m too lazy.”

“You should, that would look sick,” Jisung said, jumping at the chance. Ten looked up, lips curled up at the ends.

“ _You think?_ ” He said, mimicking Donghyuck from before, and then grabbing his bag by its neck. “Okay, if you wanna do this, I recommend we do it in the bathroom? Or outside? Just because… well, just in case. You know. … Blood.”

At the final word, mentally, Donghyuck dipped.

“You know, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea—“

“Wait, did I freak you out?” Ten said, pursing his lips in discontentment. He reached out then, squeezing at the other’s cheek. “Look at my damn ear. You think I’d be here promoting this self-piercing schtick if it wasn’t cute as hell and, well, 99% harmless?”

Begrudgingly, he had to admit it. He did look cute as hell. He said just as much.

“Right,” he continued, “Jokes aside, I promise you’re in safe hands. Now, if you really don’t wanna do this, I won’t be mad if you wanna stop. I’m here for you, remember, Hyuckie.”

“I… wanna do it,” he replied, adamant with a jut of his chin. “Where’s the best place to do it, though? I’m at your mercy here, dude.”

“Probably the bathroom? I don’t want you getting cold and doing it by phone flashlight, so…” Chenle cut in, and Donghyuck’s _heart._

“Reasons why you are my favourite: this.”

“Hey,” came the resounding complaints from almost everyone in the room.

Once they migrated into the bathroom, with the rest of them waiting outside the door after Ten kicked their nosy asses out and started sterilizing the needle, it started to set in. Donghyuck’s eyes mostly remained shut the moment he sat down on the toilet lid until Ten offered up the choice of earrings. “Could try something laid back like studs. Or… we could go extra.”

He peaked one eye open, to see Ten brandishing something. There, in his hand, was a pair of pretty, silver earrings with a simple chain link design. There was a really small connective hook that with the push of the small lever, the chain link detached, or so Donghyuck observed.

“In my, you know, ‘creative vision,’” Ten carried on, wiggling the fingers of his free hand, then resting it on his hip. “I’m thinking three piercings in total, if you’re into it. I watched a Buzzfeed video about ‘customized piercings’ or whatever and I have – ooh, I have a picture somewhere, I’ve been thinking about this for like an hour.”

He placed the earrings on the counter of the sink before digging out his phone and scrolling for a few beats. The picture was of someone with two studs in each ear, and then a single ring on the diagonal right of his right ear. The ring offset the harshness the small studs offered, and honestly, it was fucking cool. His eyes drew up to Ten’s expectant ones, noticing he had it too, and that sealed it.

“Dude,” Donghyuck said, looking up with wide eyes filled with adoration. “I want this.”

“Right?!” Ten said, indulged. “Let’s see how you take the first two and then we can check out the helix.”

“Helix,” he said back, testing the word out in his mouth almost. “What’s with all these cool names?”

“’Cartilage’ makes me want to vom every time I hear it, but _okay_ ,” Ten replied, with a grin, ripping an alcohol wipe packet with his teeth and wiping it on Donghyuck’s ear. He hissed at the coldness, jerking when Ten pinched his side. “If that’s what gets you, you gotta prepare for the ice pack, dude.”

After marking where the piercings would go, twisting Donghyuck’s head this way and that to gauge symmetry, he pulled out said ice pack and told him to press it against his ear for, at the least, five minutes. “I have numbing oil, but if you have sensitive skin it might irritate it.”

He shuddered from the cold effect, but shook his head, “’M good.”

“Soooo, what’s the deal with wanting to get your ears pierced?” Ten asked innocuously, back turned to him whilst he fiddled with something. “A dare? Just fancied it?”

“Just fancied it!” Donghyuck said, embarrassedly rushing his words. Ten didn’t react, and Donghyuck breathed out a little sigh of relief.

“Just fancied it at 9pm at night?”

Donghyuck laughed awkwardly, eyes fixed on the dark lines of the uniquely small stick and poke tattoo on his bicep the other had bragged about on Snapchat a couple weeks back; even when Ten moved his hand to seemingly fiddle with the lobe. “You know. School’s starting up again. Need something to — um. What was that.”

“Done!”

“Done?!”

He jolted then, straining up and bracing a palm on the cool ceramic of the sink to stare into the mirror at the newly pierced ear, a small gem stud residing in place and only the smallest red stain around it, before whirling around to look at Ten who brandished a small cork and a winning smile.

“Ready for the rest?”

After each piercing, which honestly was not as bad as he expected, he timidly stepped outside. Renjun, lying belly down and flicking through one of Chenle’s NBA journals, looked up first and gasped. Donghyuck had opted not to connect the chain attachment, but still looked a hell of a lot different to when he stepped in half an hour ago.

“Hyuck!” He gasped, leading the rest of them to look up in amazement. When he walked back in, he clambered onto the bed with Renjun and collapsed face down.

“Ten just murdered me.”

“Yeah, but in the best way,” Ten laughed from some ways away behind him, not too different than a bell ringing.

“Sit up, loser, let me see,” Jisung said, close again and pawing at his back.

Donghyuck rolled on the side with the most piercings in the process of getting up and hissed at the sharp shoot of pain when he pressed the piercing against the bed.

“You should be careful with that,” The oldest in the room warned lightly, tapping away at his phone on Chenle’s desk chair. Donghyuck righted himself properly and sat, hunched over with his hands clasped and pushing against the mattress, looking scorned.

The boys crowded around him, inspecting. Chenle gingerly reached out to touch, and Donghyuck screwed up his face at the almost scratch sensation of it.

“Be gentle, okay?” He said, kinda hotly when Jeno went to physically turn head again, “I’m sensitive, here.”

“You look fucking cool, Hyuck,” Jeno said, grinning and making Donghyuck’s chest puff out with pride.

“Acknowledged. You look deep, and mysterious, and not at all like your thoughts run wild of one J—”

Donghyuck leant forward at the same time as Renjun, and smacked Jaemin on opposing arms, the latter gesturing at Ten, who luckily was still swiping on his phone screen. Jaemin made a disgruntled face, rubbing his upper arms mutinously, falling silent.

“I can’t believe we did that, though. God,” Jisung said, eyes still hooked on the helix piercing residing on the upper part of his ear. They were filled with a sort of gross amazement, and it sounded like he had missed Jaemin’s almost slip-up. “Welcome to Chenle’s Piercing Emporium, we haven’t got a licence, but we _do_ have a Ten.”

 

 _hey_ , His phone vibrated later on, when Ten had left so he could get his car back before his dad caught him out, and they had long gone to sleep. _u awake?_

Donghyuck opened his eyes, any pretense of sleep going out the window. He rolled onto his side and pulled out his phone to see who it was from. Jeno Lee himself. From his position on the other side of Chenle’s dark room, he couldn’t lock eyes with him, so he texted back instead.

 

**03:14 you**

> ……yes

 

**03:16 jenofun**

> i’m sorry if we teased u too much :/ or made u do this? i guess

> we didn’t mean to its just….. I kinda wanted to do something nice but it feels like I just

> bullied you into it

> was this too much

 

Donghyuck giggled then, couldn’t stop it flying out of his mouth, and pressed his wrist against his mouth as so not to wake anybody else. Jeno really was such a sweetheart. Now how could he convey his emotions properly over text?

 

**03:18 you**

> nooooo im ok u loser lmao

 

Perfect.

 

**03:18 you**

> maybe this is good for me to get over

> um

 

**03:19 you**

> first year

> it’s fine ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

 

The next morning, it certainly was not fine.

(He spent the next few days, as school continued to creep up upon them, painstakingly following Ten’s aftercare guide that was littered with emojis replacing words and spelling mistakes, almost buying silt instead of salt and hightailing it out of the nearby general store in embarrassment after realising what he said.)

When the day came, if he dressed a little better than he usually did (as much as the uniform allowed), that was neither here nor there.

Even with the faintest touches of dark pigment in his eyeline, he knew if Ms Song caught him, she would shove a makeup wipe at him with an evil sort of glee. He stepped back from his tiny palette, sliding it between papers inside his desk, and then pocketed an eyeliner pen in case he got apprehended.

Living across the road from his best friend meant that they usually walked to school together, so he left his house after a quick wave to his mother; a grin swarming to his face when he saw his friend tapping at his phone, clueless until Donghyuck shouted a few choice word at him.

“It’s too early in the morning for these antics,” Jaemin narrowed his eyes at him, sliding his arm into the other’s in one fluid motion as soon as he got close enough. Jaemin’s thin bomber jacket zipped to the top was enough to convince anyone he was warm, but the visible breaths in puffs showed otherwise.

Donghyuck was cold too, honestly. It was supposed to be September, and yet it felt like the coldest outreaches of the Artic. “It should be illegal to start school on a day like this.”

“Wanna cut?” Jaemin said, turning to face him with a wild glint in his eye. “Let’s drop out and go find ourselves.”

Donghyuck laughed, loud and bright, giving him a side-eye, “Where will we find ourselves? A convenience store?”

“Hey, the one thing I _would_ be able to find is some freaking sweets before stepping into form,” he said wryly, but continued on, re-shouldering his backpack with his free hand. The path to school was pretty short which meant they never really rode the bus unless they were heading to someone else’s after school. Considering it was the first day of school, he didn’t particularly expect much of a reaction at his whole image switch up, and he had made peace with that. This weird, five-step plan was only aimed at _one_ boy anyways.

The moment they walked into the doors, unexpectedly however, all eyes were on him. Much like a generic coming-of-age American movie, where the boring protagonist comes into a new light, Donghyuck was honestly relishing in it.

It wasn’t like he wasn’t popular in first year, for a freshman, that was. Second year was probably the most relevant year of his budding social life, and his new look was cementing that, it seems. Yukhei, a guy in the same year that he didn’t really talk to too much flagged him down with a wave as he loitered by his locker with a third year.

“Donghyuck, your hair looks so good,” The taller boy said with an appraising smile, sleeves drawn up to his elbow crease. His shirt was untucked, something he’d heard Mr Shin yelling at him through the halls and the quad consistently in first year.

“Really?” Donghyuck replied, slowing to a halt by them, head cocked to the side slightly with a significant one of his own. Jaemin patted his side and said he was heading to form, slinking off with a casual wave and leaving Donghyuck to… uh, socialize.

“Yeah, and – oh shit, piercings too?” Yukhei’s laugh was, bless his soul, obnoxiously loud at eight in the morning, but he couldn’t deny it wasn’t cute. Or, well, _he_ wasn’t cute. “They look so cool!”

“It does look pretty cool. I’m too scared to get anything done,” The third year beside them agreed, good naturedly. He didn’t really speak to Kun, much like Yukhei, but guy was a wizard at Maths and generally super nice.

“Seriously? Thanks, guys,” Donghyuck said, arms crossed, pleasantly surprised at this appreciation, “I was super nervous to get it done, though. Needles…” He trailed off, frowning at the thought. He was pretty done with piercings for a while.

“Right? I can’t handle needles,” Kun agreed, readily, shaking his head slightly.

They continued talking until the bell rang for form time, and Donghyuck waved them off before heading to the start of his depressingly long day. ‘Highschool Never Ends’ was an accurate depiction in relation to today’s culture of education. Also, a great Bowling For Soup song.

 

 

 

Geography sucked.

This wasn’t a surprise. His other three lessons beforehand sucked as well, but none quite as much as this. At least he had already locked down a lesson to both (a) fall asleep in and (b) scrape a pass in. This way, he was still in the clear to reapply for the school’s Choir team and evade Doyoung’s ire in relation to Donghyuck’s (lack of?) studies.

Yerim was there, and Herin too, so it meant he wasn’t completely alone in this dead, dead class and at least secured the group project bag, should it ever crop up.

“Are you coming to lunch?” He asked when their teacher had finally stopped jawing on and letting them leave for lunch. He was perched on his desk, facing Yerim who sat at her own desk still, waving excitably as Herin left the classroom with a few of her friends. His phone vibrated in his pocket again, and wrapped a hand around it for later.

“ _Ugh_. I need to meet Chaeyoung and head to the library. I had some English class summer work that I…” She heaved a weary sigh, busying herself by re-pinning her buns up, “Didn’t do.”

“Gross. Oh wait, the vocab recap sheet? Are you in Ms Kwon’s class? You can borrow mine if you want,” He offered, swinging his bag off his shoulder, rifling through it and grinning wryly when the girl lit up as he offered it to her.

“I knew I kept you around for some reason or another, dearest,” Yerim said as she clutched her heart through the black school uniform sweater, fabric bundling up in her fist. “Seriously though, you’re a life saver. This way I might be able to finish and grab a pasta pot before lunch is over.”

“Anything’s better than whatever the lunch ladies are dishing up,” Donghyuck grimaced in agreement, tapping his foot to a ignore his slight hunger pangs.

When he and Yerim parted at the door, he couldn’t help but feel disappointment wash over him as he started his walk to the cafeteria. This was supposed to be his official remake. His operation in motion. His vengeance for a wasted first year, filled with disappointed. Instead he’d been flirted with by one, ( _one!_ ) boy and that was literally it.

Okay, that wasn’t fair. He’d been flirted with at least three over the past four periods, and he appreciated that, truly. Over the summer, he’d grown a little taller, keyword being little. Lost a little baby fat around the cheeks, sure. Dyed his fucking hair, for god’s sake.

The main issue was, the boy he wanted to flirt with him, had not been seen hide nor hair of all day.

Donghyuck considered checking his Instagram story, to see if he had viewed the obvious interest-trap he posted in the middle of Geography. He considered even checking Jaehyun’s Instagram story, because they weren’t close enough to have his Snapchat (a prospect he mourned daily) but considered that a step too far.

 _If things will be, they will be,_ he thought emotionally to himself, _I should write that in my song-writing journal later. Hot shit._

“Is that world beauty icon Donghyuck Lee, I see before me?!”

Ten was also obnoxiously loud, but Donghyuck was convinced it was just because he wanted to ruin Donghyuck’s life.

When Donghyuck whirled around, embarrassed, his stomach dropped.

Ten was not alone, of _course_ he was not alone. Accompanying the lean boy was the object of Donghyuck’s affections for the last few weeks of summer, one Jaehyun Jung. He wasn’t in his basketball jersey, which frankly was to be expected considering practice – he believed – wasn’t until later in the week.

This was a joy, because it meant Donghyuck didn’t have to look at his arms. It was also a disappointment, because it meant Donghyuck couldn’t look at his arms. He _could_ see his thick forearms, however, with his school sweater sleeves pulled up to his elbow; a sliver of pronounced veins from where he was handling his bag strap.

His hair was still the soft chestnut brown he’d observed during break, a natural middle part appearing from time to time with a fluffy fringe curling into his eyebrows. How he’d also managed to change over summer too was a mystery, but definitely the main reason his life was over.

If this was an anime, Jaehyun would be showered in cherry blossom petals, the refreshing boy next door aesthetic being so real it hurt. _God,_ he thought, gulping as they approached, opening his texts to the group chat of his friendship group. _Time of death. 12:37 p.m. Donghyuck Lee, you lived a good life._

“Hi guys,” he said as they got closer, smiling wide to squash the bashfulness that was threatening to choke him, and hopefully crafting and sending an “S.O.S” message without him looking at the screen.

As soon as they reached him, he pressed send, letting his phone hand hang loose by his side. Ten looked impressed, Jaehyun looked dazzling. Is it possible to have literal, actual stars in your eyes? He was going to flag down Brian Cox and send him a warning. Someone was stealing stars and putting them in pretty boys’ eyes and it just _wasn’t_ on.

“Your piercings healed well,” Ten crooned appreciatively, and Jaehyun leaned in to peer at them. His wide, sparkling (it was seriously a problem) eyes tracing the placement of the piercings, nodding along with Ten.

“It’s a bitch to sleep on, though,” Donghyuck laughed awkwardly, fiddling with the bit of his ear that wasn’t pierced.

“Yeah, that sucks. You look cute though,” his eyes glinted, and slid to the taller boy beside him. “Right, Jaehyun?”

Donghyuck wanted to die right then and there. Did he _know?_ Did he somehow see the stupid five step plan Jeno and Renjun had cooked up, plastered delightfully in the centre of Chenle’s memo board, and now he was getting embarrassed in the worst way? Ten had ended up sitting by the stupid board near the end of the night. It was more likely than him _not_ seeing.

Great.

“Cute,” Jaehyun murmured then, smiling serenely, in that way that made Donghyuck want to melt. “Your hair looks nice, too.”

“Ah… hahaha,” Donghyuck replied, because apparently, he could only make noises. “Thaaanks,” he said, lame and after a beat, trying to muster up every bit of solidarity within him so not to squeak.

“Oh shit,” Jaehyun said then, “I just realised we’re matching.”

Donghyuck frowned then, genuinely stumped, and it must have shown on his face because Jaehyun laughed, a strong, clear sound, and leant forward to brandish his own ear. “See where my nail is? I have a helix piercing too. I just forgot to put the ring in, like, a week ago.”

“You better be careful. That shit can close up in a second,” Ten admonished, jabbing him in the gut lightly.

Donghyuck nodded too, sagely, trying to seem like his overwhelming piercing knowledge wasn’t four days old.

“Got any spares?” Jaehyun asked Ten, mouth screwed up in the corner as he thought over what seemed like all of his past misdeeds.

“On me? Of course not, genius. Also, that’s gross. I’m not sharing my worn earrings with you.”

Donghyuck did. He had spares. He went into town the day after the piercing, high on whatever it was. Fear, maybe? Excitement? The prospect of shopping for something even his parents didn’t know about? He ended up being so stumped he sort of loitered around in Claire’s Accessories until a temp worker took pity on him and showed him what was best for his current piercings.

He opened his mouth, when Jaehyun’s glum expression got too much, and truly accepted the fact that he was whipped. “I, um. Bought some rings the other day? They’re probably still in my bag, if you wanna…” He didn’t finish the sentence, choosing to wave his hand vaguely, because Jaehyun’s million watt smile stole his breath away, potted it a metaphorical jar and threw it out the goddamn window.

“You sure, Hyuck? I’ll pay you back or something.” Donghyuck floundered at the nickname, choosing only to nod.

Ten shifted his weight to the side, looking contemplative… or like he was tired of just standing in the middle of the hallway. “Yeah. I say let this asshole suffer the consequences. I told him what’d happen.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Jaehyun pleaded, and it seemed like he was staring straight into Donghyuck’s. Or maybe it was the puppy eyes. His heart couldn’t take this.

“I’ll get ‘em out when — you guys _are_ going to the cafeteria, right?” Donghyuck said instead, breaking his eye contact with Jaehyun to go to the safe zone, Ten’s eyes. As if on roll call, Jaehyun’s stomach rumbled, and he nodded sheepishly.

“Let’s head there and I’ll dig them out on a table or something,” Donghyuck said, rubbing his hands together. It was still cold, but he couldn’t help but feel warm throughout. And that was _disgusting._ “Don’t worry dude, they honestly didn’t cost that much.”

They started walking, Donghyuck sandwiched in the middle of the two older boys and willing the way his skin felt heated not be shown on his face. “So, I’ve done both you guys now, right?” Ten grinned, with a little shake of his head.

“Gross. _You_ are the gross one. Leave us out of this,” Jaehyun sighed, slinging an arm around Donghyuck and pulling him away from Ten slightly. _Lord above,_ he thought, looking up at the ceiling, _don’t fail me now._

His arm slid off after a moment, and Donghyuck missed the weighted feel, but more than that, he missed a time he didn’t get flustered over tall basketball players with stars in their eyes. He was a joke. He, the great Donghyuck Lee, catching feelings?

He blanched, then. It was more likely than he thought.

“So, you did Jaehyun’s piercing too?” Donghyuck carried on, trying to change the conversation.

“I’m telling you, I’m great at this kind of thing. Properly professional and everything.”

“I’d say trainee in progress, with us as your test guinea pigs,” Jaehyun replied loftily, dodging when Ten leant around Donghyuck to pinch his arm.

“That’s true,” he mused, nodding, making Donghyuck gape at him as they reached the cafeteria. “Kidding! Slightly.”

Donghyuck shook his head, “Remind me never to trust you again, actually,” he said, approaching a table and shoving his back onto the table and pawing around until his fingers felt the familiar plastic casing. “Okay so… they’re colourful, rather than silver. That’s cool, right?”

“Sure,” The object of his ridiculous affections said, cheerfully, hovering by the desk with a quaint little smile. Ten had beelined over to his friends as soon as they’d entered, tossing a wave over his shoulder, and Jaehyun had grunted good naturedly but stayed behind. “I’m pretty chill.”

“Seem it,” Donghyuck said casually, before he could stop himself and Jaehyun laughed, loud and clear over the buzz of the students in the cafeteria.

Jaehyun had an eyebrow raised, laughter from seconds before still etched on his face. “You think?”

“I mean, I don’t know you well, so I don’t know why I… said that,” He said, finishing weakly, feeling flustered. The boy with stars in his eyes was looking at him, _really looking_ , and it made him nervous to the point of heat in his cheeks. Before he could say anything more, Donghyuck withdrew his hand and all but shoved the small Claire’s bag, receipt and all at him. “Here.”

Probably bewildered by Donghyuck’s unintended short tone, he smiled at him again, appeasing this time, and took them gently, peeking through the top of the translucent bag. “Pink? Cool.”

 _Cool._ Bare minimum Donghyuck’s heart was fluttering

“I hope that’s okay…” He said, trailing off when Jaehyun took one out of the packaging and inserted it into his ear in record time, his slight wince only being an indication his piercing also was slightly new. He leant back, smiling at Donghyuck with a little shake of his head.

“How do I look?”

“It looks nice,” he agreed, fighting past the shyness.

“You should keep the other one. I feel bad that I’m taking your things,” Jaehyun said, embarrassment bleeding through his voice, and Donghyuck was so endeared. So endeared that he didn’t realise until much later the real leaps and bounds his overthinking ass could take this. _Couple piercings._

“Are you sure? It’s really not a problem?” His voice pitched up, making everything sound like a question.

“Keep it,” Jaehyun said warmly, pressing the box back into his hands. “Now, I need to go find Ten before he tells the rest of my friends my summer work score. I’ll see you around?” He said, and he hoped to God he wasn’t imagining the hopefulness scattered in his voice.

“For sure,” Donghyuck said, waving him off and trying not to swoon right there. He watched the older boy walk off, letting out a huge, distressed breath of air. Fisting his hand in the material of his bag, he peered around to look for his friends, before deciding to head to their normal table anyways. His heart was slowly petering to the normal rate, and once he saw Chenle’s light hair, he made a beeline for him.

Unfortunately for him, someone else was on this path too.

A solid weight knocked into him from the side and he felt himself slipping at the unexpected weight. It wasn’t until a hand wrapped around his bicep, tight and kinda painful, that he was righted. Blinking rapidly, he turned to face his assailant and saviour, and the heart he’d just managed to stamp down on beat erratically once more.

Mark Lee.

Of fucking _course!_

“Are you okay? Did I hurt you? Gosh, I hope not — oh, man, Hyuck?”

“Me,” he rebounded with gritted teeth. _Me. You. This situation._

Mark Lee smiled openly at seeing Donghyuck, the smile that betrays everyone and anyone into thinking he’s not a literal demon. He lessened his grip when he realised how tight he was holding, stepping back a little, head ducked in embarrassment. “I’m really sorry about that, I didn’t mean to knock into you.”

“I’m sure you’ve wildly ran into many people on the courts, Vancouver. I don’t feel particularly special,” Donghyuck said, languid, a complete 180 degrees to how he really felt.

“That’s a foul, Donghyuck,” The other frowned, not unkindly, but it flared something akin to annoyance in his gut as soon as he said it. Could this guy ever give him a break? Studies show, unlikely.

Donghyuck scoffed, looking away and not seeing Mark’s smile falter, “Yep.”

“Well, I didn’t hear from you over break… did you… have a nice summer?” He said, politeness dripping from his voice.

_Fuck Mark Lee and his false niceties._

But despite this angry thought flaming around Donghyuck’s head, he couldn’t deny it. Summer had definitely treated Mark right, much like everyone he had seemed to come across today.

He was taller, shoulders a little broader through the white shirt of their uniform. (He wasn’t wearing his sweater despite the cold almost taking Donghyuck out earlier, furthering his belief that Mark Lee was a devil incarnate.)

His smile was wide now, unmarred by the invisible braces he’d been stuck with two thirds of first year, and he was close enough to confirm that the glasses that were his staple in first year had been switched out for clear lenses.

He’s changed, and so has Donghyuck, but Mark has _changed_ changed – so much in so many little ways it almost made his heart hurt.

“I went away,” Donghyuck said, lying through his teeth. _Why am I saying this,_ he thought, horrified. _Someone stop me._ “Went to the New Forest, in England. Lots of nature. Fantastic.”

“Oh…” Mark said, something akin to disappointment flashing in those impossibly large brown eyes. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. I was, uh, here. Didn’t go back to Canada.”

“Well, I’m happy for you, Mark,” Donghyuck said, absently thinking about ways he could evacuate this whole situation. There was a heavy feeling in his cut that reminded him of first year, and he couldn’t – deal with that right now.

There was an awkward beat of silence, and Donghyuck almost took his leave then, but Mark returned again, like a stupid dorky boomerang, speaking softly.

“I like the hair. The piercings, too. Nice changes.”

Donghyuck looked back then, cursing his weak resolve, locking eyes with an obviously unsure Mark.

“Change is good,” He said slowly, a cringy line that sounded like it had come straight out of a YA novel, and regretted it instantly. His face felt flushed again, and slammed his hands together in a painfully loud clap, surprising Mark slightly.

 _Hah,_ he said, vindicated through the pettiest of actions.

“Anyways. I gotta split. See you around, Mark. Nice catching up,” Donghyuck rushed, avoiding his gaze and hightailing it out of there to the sanctity of Chenle’s hair being a beacon for him.

He breathed from a second, almost faltering, and powering through, not turning around to see Mark even though he felt his eyes burning into the back of his skull. Wiping the distressed expression from his mind and face, he slammed onto the end of the table as soon as he reached it, making Renjun almost drop his entire ricebox.

“Good afternoon, losers. God has smiled upon me this this fine, goddamn day, and I’m here to talk to you about it.”

“Somehow,” Jisung said, shoving another mouthful of Pasta King into his mouth, “that sounds redundant."

**Author's Note:**

> ten jae & hyuck are those FOOLS who stand in the middle of a busy hallway and don't move. shun them
> 
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